Method and apparatus for processing audio signal by using Bluetooth technology

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for processing A first device for processing a voice command received from at least one device using a Bluetooth low energy technology, comprising: Specifically, a method performed by a first device includes transmitting a first advertising message to a peripheral device; receiving a first request message requesting establishment of an audio channel for transmitting and receiving the voice command from a second device; establishing the audio channel with the second device; and receiving a voice command instructing performance of a particular service from the second device through the audio channel.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the National Phase of PCT International ApplicationNo. PCT/KR2018/003194, filed on Mar. 19, 2018, which claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/472,603,filed on Mar. 17, 2017, all of which are hereby expressly incorporatedby reference into the present application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for processingan audio signal using Bluetooth, which is a short-range technology, in awireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method andapparatus for processing audio commands requested from a plurality ofusers using Bluetooth technology.

BACKGROUND ART

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that maywirelessly connect various types of devices and allows them to exchangedata over short distances. To enable wireless communication between twodevices using Bluetooth communication, a user has to perform the processof discovering Bluetooth devices to communicate with and making aconnection request. As used herein, the term “device” refers to anappliance or equipment.

In this case, the user may discover a Bluetooth device according to aBluetooth communication method intended to be used with the Bluetoothdevice using the Bluetooth device, and then perform a connection withthe Bluetooth device.

The Bluetooth communication method may be divided into as a BR/EDRmethod and an LE method. The BR/EDR method may be called a BluetoothClassic method. The Bluetooth Classic method includes a Bluetoothtechnology led from Bluetooth 1.0 and a Bluetooth technology using anenhanced data rate (EDR) supported by Bluetooth 2.0 or a subsequentversion.

A BLE technology applied, starting from Bluetooth 4.0, may stablyprovide information of hundreds of kilobytes (KB) at low powerconsumption. Such a BLE technology allows devices to exchangeinformation with each other using an attribute protocol. The BLE methodmay reduce energy consumption by reducing the overhead of a header andsimplifying the operation.

Some of the Bluetooth devices do not have a display or a user interface.The complexity of a connection, management, control, and a disconnectionbetween various Bluetooth devices and Bluetooth devices using similartechnologies is increasing.

Bluetooth supports a high speed at a relatively low cost with relativelylow power consumption. However, Bluetooth is appropriately used within alimited space because it has a maximum transmission distance of 100 m.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method and apparatusfor transmitting an audio signal using Bluetooth technology.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a protocolfor sharing a voice command between devices so that the devices enter astate capable of receiving an audio signal.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a methodfor processing audio commands requested from a plurality of users.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a methodfor granting service authority to a device at a specific location forsecure connection.

Objects of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentionedobjects. That is, other objects that are not mentioned may be obviouslyunderstood by those skilled in the art to which the present disclosurepertains from the following description.

Technical Solution

In this specification, a method for processing a voice command receivedfrom at least one device using a Bluetooth low energy technology, themethod performed by a first device includes: transmitting a firstadvertising message to a peripheral device; receiving a first requestmessage requesting establishment of an audio channel for transmittingand receiving the voice command from a second device; establishing theaudio channel with the second device; and receiving a voice commandinstructing performance of a particular service from the second devicethrough the audio channel.

Furthermore, the first advertising message may include a public key ofthe first device, the first request message may include a public key ofthe second device, and an audio command received through the audiochannel may be encrypted using the public key of the first device.

Furthermore, the method may further include: transmitting a triggercommand registered in the first device to the second device, in whichthe trigger command may indicate a voice command which causes the firstdevice to enter a state capable of receiving a voice command.

Furthermore, the first request message may include the trigger commandor information generated based on the trigger command.

Furthermore, the transmitting of the trigger command may includeselecting a bearer for transmitting the trigger command from advertisingextension, advertising, or GATT, and the trigger command may betransmitted to the second device using the selected bearer.

Furthermore, the first advertising message may include a maximum serviceuser parameter indicating the maximum number of manageable user devicesor an available service user parameter indicating the number ofcurrently available user devices.

Furthermore, the method may further include: receiving a second requestmessage requesting establishment of an audio channel for transmittingand receiving the voice command from a third device; and transmitting tothe third device a first response message including an accept or rejectintention determined based on values of the maximum service userparameter or the available service user parameter to the third device inresponse to the second request message.

Furthermore, the first request message and the second request messagemay be received during a collecting period for receiving a request of avoice recognition service of a plurality of users, and the voice commandinstructing performance of the particular service may be received duringa service period for transmitting and receiving a voice command.

Furthermore, the service period may be divided and allocated to thesecond device and the third device.

Furthermore, the establishing of the audio channel may includeestablishing the audio channel with the third device, and a channelinterval of the audio channel may include a first channel eventallocated to the second device and a second channel event allocated tothe third device.

Furthermore, the audio channel may be an isochronous channel.

Furthermore, the method may further include: exchanging locationinformation with the second device, in which in the establishing of theaudio channel, an audio channel may be established with the seconddevice based on an available service policy determined depending on thelocation of the second device.

Furthermore, the location information may include a received signalstrength indication (RSSI) or a window setting parameter.

In this specification, a first device for processing a voice commandreceived from at least one device using a Bluetooth low energytechnology includes: a communicator configured to communicate with anexternal device with a wired or wireless manner; and a processorconfigured to be functionally connected to the communicator, in whichthe processor may transmit a first advertising message to a peripheraldevice, receive a first request message requesting establishment of anaudio channel for transmitting and receiving the voice command from asecond device, establish the audio channel with the second device, andreceive a voice command instructing performance of a particular servicefrom the second device through the audio channel.

Advantageous Effects

The present disclosure has an advantage in that the voice recognitionservice may be provided through the transmission and reception of thevoice data and the audio data.

Furthermore, the present disclosure has an advantage in that the userconvenience may be increased by sharing the trigger voice commandbetween the devices.

Furthermore, the present disclosure has an advantage in that theBluetooth technology that does not perform sensing between the userdevices may effectively handle the requests by the plurality of users.

Furthermore, the present disclosure has an advantage in that it ispossible to provide the differentiated service depending on the user'slocation by granting the service authority to the device at the specificlocation for the secure connection.

Effects which can be achieved by the present disclosure are not limitedto the above-mentioned effects. That is, other objects that are notmentioned may be obviously understood by those skilled in the art towhich the present disclosure pertains from the following description.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating an example of a wirelesscommunication system using a Bluetooth low energy technology to whichthe present invention is applicable.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an internal block diagram of a devicecapable of implementing methods proposed by this specification.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a Bluetooth communication architectureto which methods proposed by this specification may be applied.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a structure of a generic attributeprofile (GATT) of Bluetooth low energy.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a connection proceduremethod in Bluetooth low energy technology to which the present inventionmay be applied.

FIG. 6 illustrates characteristics of an audio signal.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a home ecosystem for applications wherean isochronous channel may be used.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a Generic Audio Middleware (GAM)protocol stack to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for describing a method for acquiring a triggervoice command according to an embodiment to which the present disclosuremay be applied.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing a method for acquiring a triggervoice command according to an embodiment to which the present disclosuremay be applied.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for describing a method for granting authoritybased on a location according to an embodiment to which the presentdisclosure may be applied.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a user authentication protocoldepending on a distance according to an embodiment to which the presentdisclosure may be applied.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of an audio manageraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for describing a method for transmitting andreceiving an encrypted voice command according to an embodiment to whichthe present disclosure is applied.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a method for forming an audio channelthrough a procedure of acquiring a trigger voice command according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating the procedure of acquiring the triggervoice command according to the embodiment to which the presentdisclosure is applied.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are diagrams for describing a process of transmittingand receiving an audio command according to a state of an audio manageraccording to an embodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIGS. 22 and 23 are diagrams for describing a method for allocatingaudio channels for a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of an internal blockdiagram of a user device and an audio manager device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating a method for acquiring serviceauthority between an audio manager and an AI authority manager dependingon a user's location according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for exchanginglocation information between an authority manager and an audio manageraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of a usage environmentaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for processinga voice command according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

MODE FOR INVENTION

In order to help understanding of the present invention, theaccompanying drawings which are included as a part of the DetailedDescription provide embodiments of the present invention and describethe technical features of the present invention together with theDetailed Description. Like reference numerals principally designate likeelements throughout the specification. Further, in describing thepresent invention, a detailed explanation of known related technologiesmay be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the subject matter ofthe present invention. Further, it is noted that the accompanyingdrawings are only for easily understanding the spirit of the presentinvention and it should not be interpreted that the spirit of thepresent invention is limited by the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, a method and an apparatus related with the presentinvention will be described in more detail with reference to drawings.In addition, a general term used in the present invention should beinterpreted as defined in a dictionary or contextually, and should notbe interpreted as an excessively reduced meaning. Further, a singularform used in the present specification may include a plural form ifthere is no clearly opposite meaning in the context. In the presentapplication, a term such as “comprising” or “including” should not beinterpreted as necessarily including all various components or varioussteps disclosed in the specification, and it should be interpreted thatsome component or some steps among them may not be included oradditional components or steps may be further included. Suffixes “unit”,“module”, and “section” for components used in the following descriptionare given or mixed in consideration of easy preparation of thespecification only and do not have their own distinguished meanings orroles. The terms “first”, “second”, and the like are used todifferentiate a certain component from other components, but the scopeof should not be construed to be limited by the terms.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating an example of a wirelesscommunication system using a Bluetooth low energy technology to whichthe present invention is applicable.

A wireless communication system 100 includes at least one server device120 and at least one client device 110.

The server device and the client device perform Bluetooth communicationusing a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology.

First, compared with a Bluetooth basic rate/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR),the BLE technology has a relatively small duty cycle, may be produced atlow cost, and significantly reduce power consumption through a low datarate, and thus, it may operate a year or longer when a coin cell batteryis used.

Also, in the BLE technology, an inter-device connection procedure issimplified and a packet size is designed to be small compared with theBluetooth BR/EDR technology.

In the BLE technology, (1) the number of RF channels is forty, (2) adata rate supports 1 Mbps, (3) topology has a scatternet structure, (4)latency is 3 ms, (5) a maximum current is 15 mA or lower, (6) outputpower is 10 mW (10 dBm) or less, and (7) the BLE technology is commonlyused in applications such as a clock, sports, healthcare, sensors,device control, and the like.

The server device 120 may operate as a client device in a relationshipwith other device, and the client device may operate as a server devicein a relationship with other device. That is, in the BLE communicationsystem, any one device may operate as a server device or a clientdevice, or may operate as both a server device and a client device ifnecessary.

The server device 120 may be expressed as a data service device, a slavedevice, a slave, a server, a conductor, a host device, a gateway, asensing device, a monitoring device, a first device, a second device,etc.

The client device 110 may be expressed as a master device, a master, aclient, a member, a sensor device, a sink device, a collector, a thirddevice, a fourth device, etc.

The server device and the client device correspond to main components ofthe wireless communication system and the wireless communication systemmay include other components other than the server device and the clientdevice.

The server device refers to a device that receives data from the clientdevice, communicates directly with the client device, and provides datato the client device through a response when receiving a data requestfrom the client device.

Further, the server device sends a notice/notification message and anindication message to the client device in order to provide datainformation to the client device. In addition, when the server devicetransmits the indication message to the client device, the server devicereceives a confirm message corresponding to the indication message fromthe client device.

Further, the server device may provide the data information to a userthrough a display unit or receive a request input from the user througha user input interface in the process of transmitting and receiving thenotice, indication, and confirm messages to and from the client device.

In addition, the server device may read data from a memory unit or writenew data in the corresponding memory unit in the process of transmittingand receiving the message to and from the client device.

Further, one server device may be connected to multiple client devicesand may be easily reconnected to the client devices by using bondinginformation.

The client device 120 refers to a device that requests the datainformation or data transmission to the server device.

The client device receives the data from the server device through thenotice message, the indication message, etc., and when receiving theindication message from the server device, the client device sends theconfirm message in response to the indication message.

Similarly, the client device may also provide information to the userthrough the display unit or receive an input from the user through theuser input interface in the process of transmitting and receiving themessages to and from the server device.

In addition, the client device may read data from the memory unit orwrite new data in the corresponding memory unit in the process oftransmitting and receiving the message to and from the server device.

Hardware components such as the display unit, the user input interface,and the memory unit of the server device and the client device will bedescribed in detail in FIG. 2.

Further, the wireless communication system may configure personal areanetworking (PAN) through Bluetooth technology. As an example, in thewireless communication system, a private piconet between the devices isestablished to rapidly and safely exchange files, documents, and thelike.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an internal block diagram of a devicecapable of implementing methods proposed by this specification.

As shown in FIG. 2, the server device 110 includes a display unit 111, auser input interface 112, a power supply unit 113, a processor (orcontroller) 114, a memory unit 115, a Bluetooth interface 116, anotherinterface 117, and a communication unit (or transmission/reception unit)118.

The display unit 111, user input interface 112, power supply unit 113,processor 114, memory unit 115, Bluetooth interface 116, anotherinterface 117, and communication unit 118 are functionallyinterconnected so as to perform a method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

Furthermore, the client device 120 includes a display unit 121, a userinput interface 122, a power supply unit 123, a processor 124, a memoryunit 125, a Bluetooth interface 126, and a communication unit (ortransmission/reception unit) 127.

The display unit 121, user input interface 122, power supply unit 123,processor 124, memory unit 125, Bluetooth interface 126, andcommunication unit 127 are functionally interconnected so as to performa method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The Bluetooth interface 116, 126 refers to a unit (or module) capable oftransmitting a request/response, command, notification,indication/confirm message, or data between devices using the Bluetoothtechnology.

The memory 115, 125 is implemented in various types of devices andrefers to a unit in which various data is stored.

The processor 114, 124 refers to a module for controlling an overalloperation of the server device 110 or the client device 120, andcontrols the server device or the client device in order in order torequest the transmission of a message through the Bluetooth interface orother interface and to process a received message.

The processors 114 and 124 may be represented by a control section, acontrol unit, a controller, and the like.

The processors 114 and 124 may include an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), another chipset, a logic circuit, and/or adata processing device.

The processors 114 and 124 control the communication unit to receive anAdvertising message from the server device 110, transmit a Scan Requestmessage to the server device 110, control the communication unit toreceive a Scan Response message from the server device 110 in responseto the scan request, and control the communication unit to transmit aConnect Request message to the server device 110 in order to establish aBluetooth connection with the server device 110.

In addition, after a Bluetooth LE connection is established through theconnection procedure, the processors 114 and 124 control thecommunication unit so as to read or write data from or in the serverdevice 110 using an attribute protocol.

The memory units 115 and 125 may include a read-only memory (ROM), arandom access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a memory card, a storagemedium, and/or other storage devices.

The communication units 118 and 127 may include a baseband circuit forprocessing a radio signal. When the embodiment is implemented bysoftware, the aforementioned technique may be implemented by a module (aprocess, a function, and the like) that performs the aforementionedfunction. The module may be stored in the memory unit and executed bythe processor.

The memory units 115 and 125 may be positioned inside or outside theprocessors 114 and 124 and connected with the processors 114 and 124 byvarious well-known means.

The display units 111 and 121 refer to modules for providing stateinformation of the device and message exchange information to the userthrough a screen.

The power supply units 113 and 123 refer to modules that receiveexternal power and internal power under the control of the control unitand supply power required for operating each of the components.

As described above, the BLE technology may have a small duty cycle andsignificantly reduce power consumption through low data rate.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a Bluetooth communication architectureto which methods proposed by this specification may be applied.

Specifically, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an architecture ofBluetooth low energy (LE).

As shown in FIG. 3, the BLE structure includes a controller stackcapable of processing a wireless device interface for which timing iscritical and a host stack capable of processing high level data.

The controller stack may also be called a controller. In order to avoidconfusion with the processor, that is, an internal element of the devicedescribed with reference to FIG. 2, however, the controller stack may bepreferably used below.

First, the controller stack may be implemented using a communicationmodule which may include a Bluetooth wireless device and a processormodule which may include a processing device, such as a microprocessor.

The host stack may be implemented as part of an OS operating on theprocessor module or as a package instance on an OS.

In some cases, the controller stack and the host stack may operate ormay be performed on the same processing device within the processormodule.

The host stack includes a generic access profile (GAP) 310, GATT basedprofiles 320, a generic attribute profile (GATT) 330, an attributeprotocol (ATT) 340, a security manager (SM) 350, and a logical linkcontrol and adaptation protocol (L2CAP) 360. The host stack is notlimited to the aforementioned composition, but may include variousprotocols and profiles.

The host stack multiplexes various protocols and profiles provided bythat Bluetooth specification using the L2CAP.

First, the L2CAP 360 provides one bilateral channel for sending data toaccording to a specific protocol or specific profile.

The L2CAP is capable of multiplexing data between upper layer protocols,segmenting or reassembling packages, and managing multicast datatransmission.

BLE uses three fixed channels for respective signaling, a securitymanager, and an attribute protocol.

BR/EDR uses a dynamic channel and supports a protocol servicemultiplexer, retransmission, streaming mode.

The SM 350 authenticates a device, which is a protocol for providing akey distribution.

The ATT 340 relies on a server-client structure, which defines rules fora corresponding device for data access. Six message types are defined:Request, Response, Command, Notification, Indication, and Confirmation.

{circumflex over (1)} Request and Response message: the Request messageis used when a client device requests specific information from a serverdevice, and the Response message is used in response to a Requestmessage, which is transmitted from the server device to the clientdevice.

{circumflex over (2)} Command message: The Command message istransmitted from a client device to a server device in order to indicatea command for a specific operation, but the server device does not senda response to a Command message to the client device.

{circumflex over (3)} Notification message: A server device sends thismessage to a client device in order to provide notification of an event,but the client device does not send a confirmation message to the serverdevice in response to a Notification message.

{circumflex over (4)} Indication and Confirm message: A server devicesends this message to a client device in order to provide notificationof an event. Unlike in the Notification message, the client device sendsa Confirm message to the server device in response to an Indicationmessage.

The generic access profile (GAP) is a layer newly implemented to supportthe BLE technology, and is used to control the selection of a role forcommunication between BLE devices and a multi-profile operation.

The GAP is mainly used for device discovery, connection establishment,and security. That is, the GAP defines a method for providinginformation to a user and also defines the following attribute types.

{circumflex over (1)} Service: A combination of actions related to data,and it defines the basic operation of a device.

{circumflex over (2)} Include: Define a relationship between services.

{circumflex over (3)} Characteristics: A data value used by a service

{circumflex over (4)} Behavior: A format that may be readable by acomputer, which is defined by a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) and avalue type.

The GATT-based profiles are dependent on the GATT and are mainly appliedto BLE devices. The GATT-based profiles may include Battery, Time,FindMe, Proximity, Object Delivery Service and so on. More specificdescriptions of the GATT-based profiles are as follows.

Battery: A method for exchanging battery information.

Time: A method for exchanging time information.

FindMe: A method for providing an alarm service according to thedistance.

Proximity: A method for exchanging battery information.

Time: A method for exchanging time information

The GATT may be used as a protocol by which to describe how the ATT isutilized at the time of composing services. For example, the GATT may beused to define how the ATT profiles are grouped together with servicesand to describe characteristics associated with the services.

Therefore, the GATT and the ATT describe device statuses and services,and how features are associated with each other and how they are used.

The controller stack includes a physical layer 390, a link layer 380,and a host controller interface 370.

The physical layer 390 (or a wireless transmission and reception module)sends and receives radio signals of 2.4 GHz, and uses GFSK modulationand frequency hopping utilizing 40 RF channels.

The link layer 380 sends or receives Bluetooth packets.

Furthermore, the link layer establishes a connection between devicesafter performing the advertising and scanning function using threeadvertising channels, and provides a function of exchanging a maximum of42 bytes of data packets through 37 data channels.

The host controller interface (HCI) provides an interface between thehost stack and the controller stack so that the host stack may providecommands and data to the controller stack and the controller stack mayprovide events and data to the host stack.

Hereinafter, the procedure of BLE is described briefly.

The BLE procedure includes a device filtering procedure, an advertisingprocedure, a scanning procedure, a discovering procedure, and aconnecting procedure.

Device Filtering Procedure

The device filtering procedure functions to reduce the number of deviceswhich perform responses to requests, commands, or notification in thecontroller stack.

All of devices may not need to respond to received requests.Accordingly, the controller stack reduces the number of transmittedrequests so that power consumption can be reduced in the BLE controllerstack.

An advertising device or a scanning device may perform the devicefiltering procedure in order to restrict the number of devices whichreceive advertisement packets, scan requests, or connection requests.

In this case, the advertising device refers to a device which sends anadvertisement event, that is, a device which performs advertisement, andis also called an advertiser.

A scanning device refers to a device which performs scanning, that is, adevice which sends a scan request.

In the BLE specification, if a scanning device receives part ofadvertisement packets from an advertising device, the scanning devicehas to send a scan request to the advertising device.

If the transmission of a scan request is not required as the devicefiltering procedure is used, however, the scanning device may ignoreadvertisement packets transmitted by an advertising device.

The device filtering procedure may be used even in the connectionrequest procedure. If device filtering is used for the connectionrequest procedure, the need for sending a response to a connectionrequest may be made unnecessary by ignoring the connection request.

Advertising Procedure

An advertising device performs an advertisement procedure to performnon-directional broadcast using the devices within the range of theadvertising device.

In this case, the non-directional broadcast refers to broadcast in alldirections rather than broadcast in specific directions.

Unlike the non-directional broadcast, the directional broadcast refersto broadcast in a specific direction. Non-directional broadcast isperformed without involving a connection procedure between devices in alistening state (hereinafter referred to as a “listening device”).

The advertising procedure is used to establish a BLE to a nearbyinitiating device.

In some embodiments, the advertising procedure may be used to providethe periodic broadcast of user data to scanning devices which performlistening through an advertising channel.

In the advertising procedure, all of advertisements (or advertisementevents) are broadcasted through an advertising physical channel.

An advertising device may receive a scan request from a listening devicewhich performs a listening operation in order to obtain additional userdata from the advertising device. In response to the scan request, theadvertising device sends a response to the listening device which hassent the scan request through the same advertising physical channelthrough which the advertising device has received the scan request.

While broadcast user data sent as part of advertising packets formsdynamic data, scan response data is static for the most part.

An advertising device may receive a connection request from aninitiating device through an advertising (or broadcast) physicalchannel. If the advertising device has used a connectable advertisementevent and the initiating device has not been filtered by a filteringprocedure, the advertising device stops an advertisement and entersconnected mode. The advertising device may resume the advertisementafter entering the connected mode.

Scanning Procedure

A device performing a scan operation, that is, a scanning device,performs a scanning procedure in order to listen to the non-directionalbroadcast of user data from advertising devices which use an advertisingphysical channel.

In order to request additional user data, a scanning device sends a scanrequest to an advertising device through an advertising physicalchannel. In response to the scan request, the advertising deviceincludes additional user data requested by the scanning device in a scanresponse and sends the scan response to the scanning device through theadvertising physical channel.

The scanning procedure may be used while a scanning device is connectedto another BLE device in a BLE piconet.

If a scanning device receives a broadcast advertising event and stays ininitiator mode where a connection request may be initiated, the scanningdevice may initiate BLE for an advertising device by sending aconnection request to the advertising device through an advertisingphysical channel.

If a scanning device sends a connection request to an advertisingdevice, the scanning device stops the entire scanning for additionalbroadcast and enters connected mode.

Discovering Procedure

Devices capable of Bluetooth communication (hereinafter referred to as“Bluetooth devices”) perform an advertising procedure and a scanningprocedure in order to discover devices around the Bluetooth devices ordevices to be discovered by other devices within a given area.

The discovering procedure is performed in an asymmetric manner.

A Bluetooth device searching for another Bluetooth device nearby iscalled a discovering device, and performs listening in order to searchfor devices that advertise advertisement events that may be scanned. ABluetooth device which may be discovered and used by another device iscalled a discoverable device. A discoverable device actively broadcastsan advertisement event so that other devices can scan the discoverabledevice through an advertising (or broadcast) physical channel.

Both of the discovering device and the discoverable device may alreadyhave been connected to other Bluetooth devices in a piconet

Connecting Procedure

A connecting procedure is asymmetric. In the connecting procedure, whilea particular Bluetooth device performs an advertising procedure, otherBluetooth devices need to perform a scanning procedure.

In other words, the advertising procedure may be a primary task to beperformed, and as a result, only one device may respond to anadvertisement.

After receiving a connectable advertisement event from an advertisingdevice, the connecting procedure may be initiated by sending aconnection request to the advertising device through an advertising (orbroadcast) physical channel.

Operation statuses defined in the BLE technology, that is, anadvertising state, a scanning state, an initiating state, and aconnection state, are described briefly below.

Advertising State

The link layer (LL) enters the advertising state in a command from ahost (or stack). If the link layer is in the advertising state, the linklayer sends advertising packet data units (PDUs) at advertisementevents.

Each advertisement event includes at least one advertising PDU, and theadvertising PDU is transmitted through an advertising channel index.Each advertisement event may be previously closed if the advertising PDUis transmitted through each advertising channel index, the advertisingPDU is terminated, or the advertising device needs to secure the spacein order to perform other functions.

Scanning State

The link layer enters the scanning state in response to a command from ahost (or stack). In the scanning state, the link layer listens toadvertising channel indices.

The scanning state supports two types: passive and active scanning.

The host determines a scanning type.

No separate time or advertising channel index is defined to performscanning.

In the scanning state, the link layer listens to an advertising channelindex for “scanWindow” duration. scanInterval is defined as the intervalbetween the start points of two consecutive scan windows.

If there is no scheduling collision, the link layer has to performlistening in order to complete all of the scanIntervals of scanWindowsas commanded by the host. In each scanWindow, the link layer has to scanother advertising channel indices. The link layer uses all of availableadvertising channel indices.

In the case of passive scanning, the link layer is unable to send anypacket, but only receives packets.

In the case of active scanning, the link layer performs listening to theadvertising device to rely on the advertising PDU type by whichadditional information related to the advertising PDUs and advertisingdevice may be requested.

Initiating State

The link layer enters the initiating state in response to a command froma host (or stack).

In the initiating state, the link layer performs listening toadvertising channel indices.

In the initiating state, the link layer listens to an advertisingchannel index for “scanWindow” duration.

Connection State

The link layer enters a connection state when the device performing theconnection request, i. e., the initiating device transmits CONNECT_REQPDU to the advertising device or when the advertising device receivesCONNECT_REQ PDU from the initiating device.

After entering the connections state, it is considered that theconnection is created. However, it need not be considered so that theconnection is established at the time of entering the connections state.An only difference between a newly created connection and the previouslyestablished connection is a link layer connection supervision timeoutvalue.

When two devices are connected to each other, two devices playdifference roles.

A link layer serving as a master is referred to as the master and a linklayer serving as a slave is referred to as the slave. The mastercontrols a timing of a connection event and the connection event refersto a time at which the master and the slave are synchronized.

Hereinafter, a packet defined the Bluetooth interface will be brieflydescribed. BLE devices use packets defined below.

Packet Format

The link layer has only one packet format used for both an advertisingchannel packet and a data channel packet.

Each packet is constituted by four fields, i.e., a preamble, an accessaddress, a PDU, and a CRC.

When one packet is transmitted in an advertising physical channel, thePDU will become an advertising channel PDU and when one packet istransmitted in a data physical channel, the PDU will become a datachannel PDU.

Advertising Channel PDU

The advertising channel PDU includes a 16 bit header and a payload ofvarious sizes.

The PDU type filed of an advertising channel included in the headersupports PDU types defined in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1 PDU Type Packet Name 0000 ADV_IND 0001 ADV_DIRECT_IND 0010ADV_NONCONN_IND 0011 SCAN_REQ 0100 SCAN_RSP 0101 CONNECT_REQ 0110ADV_SCAN_IND 0111-1111 Reserved

Advertising PDU

The following advertising channel PDU types are called advertising PDUsand are used for specific events.

ADV_IND: a connectable non-directional advertisement event

ADV_DIREC_IND: a connectable directional advertisement event

ADV_NONCONN_IND: a non-connectable non-directional advertisement event

ADV_SCAN_IND: a non-directional advertisement event that may be scanned

The PDUs are transmitted by the link layer in the advertising state andare received by the link layer in the scanning state or initiatingstate.

Scanning PDUs

The advertising channel PDU type below is called a scanning PDU and isused in the status described below.

SCAN_REQ: transmitted by the link layer in the scanning state andreceived by the link layer in the advertising state.

SCAN_RSP: transmitted by the link layer in the advertising state andreceived by the link layer in the scanning state.

Initiating PDUs

The advertising channel PDU type below is called an initiating PDU.

CONNECT_REQ: transmitted by the link layer in the initiating state andreceived by the link layer in the advertising state.

Data Channel PDU

The data channel PDU may have a 16-bit header and various sizes ofpayloads and include a message integrity check (MIC) field.

The procedure, the state, the packet format, and the like in the BLEtechnology, which are described above, may be applied in order toperform methods proposed by this specification.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a structure of a generic attributeprofile (GATT) of Bluetooth low energy.

Referring to FIG. 4, a structure for exchanging profile data of theBluetooth low energy may be described.

Specifically, the generic attribute profile (GATT) is a definition of amethod in which data is transmitted and received by using services andcharacteristics between the Bluetooth LE devices.

In general, a Peripheral device (e.g., a sensor device) serves as a GATTserver and has a definition of services and characteristics.

A GATT client sends a data request to the GATT server in order to reador write the data and all transactions start at the GATT client and theresponse is received from the GATT server.

A GATT-based operation structure used in the Bluetooth LE may be basedon THE profile, the service, and the characteristic, and may have avertical structure illustrated in FIG. 5.

The profile may be constituted by one or more services and the servicemay be constituted by one or more characteristics or other services.

The service may serve to divide data into logical units and include oneor more characteristics or other services. Each service has a 16-bit or128-bit separator called a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID).

The characteristic is a lowest unit in the GATT-based operationstructure. The characteristic includes only one datum and has a 16-bitor 128-bit UUID similar to the service.

The characteristic is defined as a value of various information andrequires one attribute to contain each information. The characteristicmay adopt various consecutive attributes.

The attribute is constituted by four components, which have thefollowing meanings.

-   -   handle: Address of attribute    -   Type: Type of attribute    -   Value: Value of attribute    -   Permission: Access authority to attribute

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a connection proceduremethod in Bluetooth low power energy technology to which the presentinvention may be applied.

A server transmits to a client an advertising message through threeadvertising channels (S5010).

The server may be called an advertiser before connection and called as amaster after the connection. As an example of the server, there may be asensor (temperature sensor, etc.).

Further, the server may be called a scanner before the connection andcalled as a slave after the connection. As an example of the client,there may be a smart phone, etc.

As described above, in Bluetooth, communication is performed over atotal of 40 channels through the 2.4 GHz band. Three channels among 40channels as the advertising channels are used for exchanging sent andreceived for establishing the connection, which include variousadvertising packets.

The remaining 37 channels are used for data exchange after connection tothe data channel.

The client may receive the advertising message and thereafter, transmitthe Scan Request message to the server in order to obtain additionaldata (e.g., a server device name, etc.).

In this case, the server transmits the Scan Response message includingthe additional data to the client in response to the Scan Requestmessage.

Here, the Scan Request message and the Scan Response message are onetype of advertising packet and the advertising packet may include onlyuser data of 31 bytes or less.

Therefore, when there is data in which the size of the data is largerthan 3 bytes, but overhead to transmit the data through the connection,the data is divided and sent twice by using the Scan Request message andthe Scan Response message.

Next, the client transmits to the server a Connection Request messagefor establishing a Bluetooth connection with the server (S5020).

Therefore, a Link Layer (LL) connection is established between theserver and the client.

Thereafter, the server and the client perform a security establishmentprocedure.

The security establishment procedure may be interpreted as securitysimple pairing or may be performed including the same.

That is, the security establishment procedure may be performed throughPhase 1 through Phase 3.

Specifically, a pairing procedure (Phase 1) is performed between theserver and the client (S5030).

In the pairing procedure, the client transmits a Pairing Request messageto the server and the server transmits a Pairing Response message to theclient.

Through the pairing procedure, authentication requirements and input(I)/output (O) capabilities and Key Size information are sent andreceived between the devices. Through the information, which keygeneration method is to be used in Phase 2 is determined.

Next, as Phase 2, legacy pairing or secure connections are performedbetween the server and the client (S5040).

In Phase 2, A 128-bit temporary key and a 128-bit short term key (STK)for performing the legacy pairing are generated.

-   -   Temporary Key: Key made for creating the STK    -   Short Term Key (LTK): Key value used for making encrypted        connection between devices

When the secure connection is performed in Phase 2, a 128-bit long termkey (LTK) is generated.

-   -   Long Term Key (LTK): Key value used even in later connection in        addition to encrypted connection between the devices

Next, as Phase 3, a Key Distribution procedure is performed between theserver and the client (S5050).

Therefore, the secure connection may be established and the data may betransmitted and received by forming the encrypted link.

Overview of Isochronous Channel

FIG. 6 shows characteristics of an audio signal.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the case of an audio signal, audio streaming dataor audio data is periodically generated at an idle event interval.

Audio data is generated periodically (or at a specific time interval)according to the characteristics thereof.

In this case, the specific time interval during which audio data isperiodically generated may be represented as an idle event interval.

Audio data is transmitted at an individual idle event interval.

Furthermore, individual audio data may be transmitted throughout part ofor the entire event interval.

As shown in FIG. 6, when audio streaming data generated periodically orregularly is transmitted according to the BLE mechanism, anadvertisement and scanning procedure, a communication procedure, and adisconnection procedure have to be performed whenever the generatedaudio data is transmitted or received.

As shown in FIG. 6, however, since audio data is generated at a regularinterval for most cases, latency needs to be guaranteed with respect tothe transmission of the audio data regardless of the amount of the audiodata.

If the advertisement and scanning procedure, the communicationprocedure, and the disconnection procedure are performed whenever newlygenerated audio data is transmitted, however, a latency problem occursduring the transmission of the audio data.

If the BLE technology rather than the Bluetooth BE/EDR technology isused, high energy efficiency can be achieved because a relatively smallamount of audio data is transmitted through an HA or headset. Asdescribed above, however, great overhead is generated because the datachannel process of the BLE technology involves advertising, connection,etc. whenever data is transmitted. Accordingly, latency absolutelyrequired for the transmission of audio data cannot be guaranteed.

Furthermore, the data channel process of the BLE technology involvessending intermittently generated data only when necessary, therebyimproving energy efficiency by leading a BLE device in a different timeregion to deep sleep. Therefore, it may be difficult to apply the datachannel process of the BLE technology to the transmission of audio datagenerated at a regular interval.

For such a reason, it is necessary to define a new mechanism in whichperiodically generated data, such as audio streams, is transmitted andreceived using the BLE technology.

In addition, since the operation of the link layer for transmitting anaudio signal is not defined, the BLE has difficulty in transmitting anaudio signal. Even if the audio signal is transmitted, a procedure for auser device (e.g., a headset, a phone, etc.) transmit the audio signalto a target device by discovering a device capable of receiving andprocessing the audio signal needs to be defined.

Thus, the present invention provides a procedure in which the userdevice may determine devices capable of recognizing and processing theaudio signal of the user and transferring the processed audio signal tothe target device in order to control the devices with the voice of theuser.

Hereinafter, methods for transmitting and receiving periodicallygenerated data (e.g., audio data, voice data, etc.) using the BLEtechnology will be described in detail.

That is, in the BLE technology, provided is a method for newly defininga channel for transmitting and receiving the periodically generated dataand transmitting periodically generated data within a range that doesnot impair energy performance of the BLE by additionally defining amechanism related to the newly defined channel.

Terms including audio stream data, audio data, audio streaming, audiostream, and the like may be interpreted as the same meaning.

Hereinafter, for convenience of understanding, it will be assumed thatthe terms are unified and used as the audio data.

Isochronous channel and definition of a mechanism related to isochronouschannel

A new channel, that is, an isochronous channel, is defined to send datagenerated at a regular interval using the BLE technology.

An isochronous channel is used to send isochronous data to devices usingisochronous streams.

Isochronous data refers to data transmitted at a particular timeinterval, that is, periodically or regularly.

In other words, an isochronous channel may represent a channel forsending and receiving periodically generated data, such as audio data,in the BLE technology.

An isochronous channel may be used to send and receive audio data to andfrom a single member, three of one or more coordinated members, or aplurality of members.

Furthermore, an isochronous channel corresponds to an isochronousstream, such as an audio stream, or a flushing channel which may be usedto send and receive important data in other time regions.

Methods using an isochronous channel described later are usedindependently of the advertising channel and data channel defined in theexisting (v4.2 or earlier) BLE technology.

Furthermore, this document additionally defines a new frequency channeland frequency hopping interval for an isochronous channel.

An isochronous channel enables a conductor to send an isochronous streamsuch as flushable data (e.g., time-bound audio data) to one or moremembers using the BLE.

In this case, the conductor may be represented as a master, and themember may be represented as a slave.

Furthermore, an isochronous channel may or may not be configured bysecurity setting.

Furthermore, an isochronous channel may be set up for various topologiesto allow the transmission of an isochronous stream between a singleconductor and a member, between a single conductor and a coordinatedpair of members which generates a stereo audio stream, such as hearingaids or stereo headsets, and between a single conductor and a pluralityof members synchronized with the same isochronous stream(s).

In this case, the member may send data to the conductor through anisochronous channel.

Furthermore, the isochronous channel may support the transmission andreception of shared audio, public audio, and broadcast audio as well asthe transmission and reception of personal audio.

A procedure for setting up an isochronous channel requires thathierarchy of profile level security and reliability requirements satisfyuse cases.

Furthermore, an isochronous channel may be used for variousapplications, by which a plurality of audio sources and sinks may be setup, and complicated topologies may be set up to allow users to regularlychange or share different audio streams.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a home ecosystem for applications wherean isochronous channel may be used.

That is, FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a space in which multipleaudio conductors and members to which the methods proposed by thisspecification may be applied may move within or outside each other'sarea.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the presence of various conductors and membersmay imply that the isochronous channel is needed as a method forinforming the presence of a member so that the member may obtaininformation required for configuring the isochronous channel.

The isochronous channel may also be used for transmitting and receivingnon audio data.

The member may use isochronous channels to determine whether there arenotification messages that may include acquisition information fromconductors within a BLE communication range.

Further, the member may use the isochronous channels to receive arequest for control information or service data from one or one or moredevices acting as a remote controller.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a Generic Audio Middleware (GAM)protocol stack to which the present invention may be applied.

An audio architecture including an Audio Middleware Layer may supportunicast and broadcast audios using the BLE.

The audio middleware layer facilitates a transition between connectionsof audio application programs and may develop a more developed usercase.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, by adding an audio middleware layer capable ofaccessing all audio profiles, the GAM may provide a smooth audio serviceto the user even in a dynamic and multi-profile environment. Sincemiddleware may handle switching between audio mixing of various usercases and the user cases, each profile may concentrate on a specificfunction.

Since the GAM may support multiple profiles, the user may select anaudio content range and an application program which may seamlessly movebetween voice operating devices.

The GAM defines announcements for the audio streaming and signaltransmission for audio control and data transmission. An applicationlayer defines application signaling and required transmissionparameters.

In the existing Bluetooth low energy (hereinafter, BLE) technology,since an operation of a link layer for transmitting an audio signal isnot defined, it is difficult to transmit an audio signal through BLEcommunication. In addition, in the BLE standard technology underdiscussion recently, the audio transmission is possible, but a procedureof causing a user's device (for example, a headset, a phone, and thelike) to search for a device capable of receiving and processing anaudio command, and transmitting the received audio command to thesearched device is not defined.

In other words, in the existing BLE technology, when a user transmitshis/her desired command to his/her own device by voice, a procedure ofcausing a device recognizing the voice to search for a device capable ofprocessing the voice command and transmitting the processed voicecommand to the searched device is not defined.

Therefore, a procedure of causing a device recognizing a voice commandfrom a user to search for a device capable of quickly processing thevoice command and transmitting the voice command to the searched deviceneeds to be defined. To this end, the present disclosure proposes aprotocol for sharing a voice command between devices so that the devicesenter a state capable of receiving an audio signal.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for describing a method for acquiring a triggervoice command according to an embodiment to which the present disclosuremay be applied.

Referring to FIG. 9(a), a user may register a trigger voice command in adevice through a trigger voice command register procedure.

In the present disclosure, the trigger voice command indicates a user'svoice command which causes an audio manager to enter a state capable ofreceiving a voice command (or an audio command). The audio managerindicates a device capable of processing a voice command. In this case,the audio manager may be a device implemented to include a voicerecognition engine or may be a device that communicates with the voicerecognition engine in a wired or wireless manner. In this specification,the audio manager may be referred to as an audio engine, an audiogateway, a gateway, artificial intelligence (AI), or the like.

The user registers the trigger voice command through the trigger voicecommand registration procedure with the audio manager. If the triggervoice command registered in the audio manager is to be used even in theuser device, the user similarly registers the trigger voice commandthrough the trigger voice command registration procedure with the userdevice.

For example, if a trigger voice “A” is registered in a first audiomanager, then the first audio manager may receive a voice command onlywhen the voice “A” is input (or transmitted) to the audio manager beforethe voice command is transmitted. In addition, if a trigger voice “B” isregistered in a second audio manager, then the second audio manager mayreceive the voice command only when the trigger voice “B” is input tothe audio manager.

According to the existing BLE technology, in order for the user deviceto use the first audio manager and the second audio manager, the triggervoice A″ needs to be registered in the first audio manager, the triggervoice “B” needs to be registered in the second audio manager, and thetrigger voices “A” and “B” each need to be registered in the userdevice. In this case, the trigger voice command registration procedurewith each device needs to be performed four times in total, whichcomplicates the procedure and causes inconvenience to the user.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG.9(b), the user device may acquire a trigger voice command from the audiomanager. Since the user device can directly acquire the trigger voicecommand from the audio manager without separately registering the user'strigger voice, the procedure can be simplified and the user conveniencecan be increased. In other words, the user device proposed herein cansimplify the procedure by defining a protocol for acquiring the triggervoice from the audio manager.

When a plurality of users issues commands to one device capable ofprocessing a voice command simultaneously or at small time intervals, avoice command processing device needs a method for efficientlyprocessing the voice command.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for describing a method for acquiring a triggervoice command according to an embodiment to which the present disclosuremay be applied.

Referring to FIG. 10(a), the existing audio manager is configured toreceive and process an audio command (or voice command) from one user.Therefore, in a situation where a plurality of users want to issuecommands to the audio manager, the plurality of users need to wait inconsultation with each other. For example, when audio commands arereceived from a plurality of users under the environment where the audiocommand may be requested from the plurality of users like an airport, arestaurant, and the like, the plurality of users may experienceinconvenience.

Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes a method for processingaudio commands transmitted from a plurality of users in order to solvesuch a problem.

In the present specification, a user device includes a BLE module as adevice that a user can carry, and may form an audio channel with anaudio manager for transmitting an audio signal.

Also, an audio engine indicates a device capable of understanding andprocessing the meaning of a voice command. In general, the audio enginemay be an audio engine server. When the audio manager does not have afunction of directly interpreting the meaning of the voice command, thatis, when the audio manager does not include the audio engine, the audiomanager may request the audio engine to interpret or process the voicecommand.

In this specification, the audio channel indicates a channel capable ofexchanging (or transmitting/receiving) voice data (or audio signal)using the BLE technology.

Referring to FIG. 10(b), the audio manager may effectively process theaudio commands received from the plurality of user devices through themethod proposed in this specification.

The existing AI does not provide differentiated services depending onwhere the user is.

However, under the environment where a service specialized for alocation is required depending on a location to which a user belongs,when a user owns a device capable of processing a voice command with apersonal device, a procedure of identify where each user is located togrant a user accessible (or executable) authority only to a specificlocation.

Therefore, the present disclosure proposes a method for granting serviceauthority to a device at a specific location for secure connection.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for describing a method for granting authoritybased on a location according to an embodiment to which the presentdisclosure may be applied.

The present disclosure proposes a method for acquiring service authoritybetween an audio manager and an AI authority manager depending on auser's location.

Referring to FIG. 11, the AI authority manager may check a distance fromuser devices and determine whether to grant authority thereto. Here,both the AI authority manager and the user devices may be an audiomanager capable of processing a voice command.

In this case, the user device may be an audio manager in the form of anindependent device, or may be an audio manager driven as software in adevice, such as a smart phone, a headset, and handsfree, owned by theuser.

In addition, the AI authority manager is a device that can determinewhere the device is, and a device that implements a protocol fornotifying the surrounding audio manager of the corresponding locationinformation.

The AI authority manager may grant access authority to users who belongto a specific location only at a specific location by checking adistance from a user device to control the users to use services.According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible toprovide differentiated services depending on the user's location.

At this time, the AI authority manager may check the distance from theuser device through a distance bonding check procedure. The distancebonding check procedure will be described with reference to the drawingsbelow.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a user authentication protocoldepending on a distance according to an embodiment to which the presentdisclosure may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 12, a set distance bonding operation may be added to aSecure Get/Put operation so that authentication can be performed onlywithin a predetermined distance by acquiring (or calculating andestimating) a distance between a user authentication service (UAS)client and a UAS server.

Here, the secure get/put operation refers to a method for retrieving,adding, and deleting a token, and unregistering and updating an ID inthe UAS server device. In this case, the token indicates a unique unitindicating the user authentication information.

In FIG. 12, the AI authority manager and the audio manager may eachoperate as a UAS client and a UAS server.

To initiate the Secure Get/Put operation (or procedure), the UAS clientneeds to complete a secure session beforehand. If an active registrationID is set in the secure session, the UAS client transmits a Secure Getmessage for token retrieval to the UAS server (S12010 and S12030), andthe UAS server transmits a response message to each Secure Get messageto the UAS client (S12020 and S1204).

In steps S12060 to S12090, the UAS client may transmit a message forretrieving, adding, and deleting a token, unregistering an ID, andsetting a time from the UAS server device to the UAS server.

In particular, the UAS client may transmit the set distance bondingmessage to the UAS server (S12100). The set distance bonding message mayinclude location information of the UAS client. The location informationmay be generated based on location information provided from the AIauthority manager.

The AI authority manager and the audio manager can check proximitybetween devices using a UAS protocol. In this case, various knowndistance measuring methods (for example, received signal strengthindication (RSSI)) may be used.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of an audio manageraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 13, a device implemented as an audio manager mayinclude a display unit, a user input interface, a power supply unit, acontrol unit (or a processor), and a memory unit, a network interface, astorage, and a multimedia module. The network interface may include aBLE interface and an internet interface, and may include a communicationunit capable of communicating with an external device in a wired orwireless manner.

Each configuration included in the audio manager may perform the samefunction as the configurations (configuration of a server device or aclient device) described above with reference to FIG. 2.

The BLE interface of the audio device may exchange (or transmit andreceive) an audio command (or an audio signal) with the BLE interface ofthe user device. In addition, the BLE interface of the audio device mayexchange a control command with the BLE interface of the control device.

In addition, the BLE interface of the audio device may exchangeinformation related to handover with an audio engine. As describedabove, the audio device may be implemented by including the audio enginetherein, or may be implemented to communicate with an external audioengine in a wired or wireless manner.

In addition, the internet interface of the audio device may request theaudio engine to interpret the audio command and receive a responsethereto.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for describing a method for transmitting andreceiving an encrypted voice command according to an embodiment to whichthe present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 14, the first device may be a user device and thesecond device may be an audio manager device.

The second device transmits an advertising message to peripheral devices(S14010). The advertising message may include a public key of the seconddevice.

The first device receiving the advertising message transmits a startrecording message to the second device (S14020). Here, the startrecording message refers to a message that causes the audio manager toenter a state capable of receiving an audio command (or audio signal).The start recording message may include the public key of the firstdevice or the trigger voice command described above. Upon receiving thestart recording message, the second device can receive the audiocommand. That is, when the second device receives the start recordingmessage, an audio channel between the first device and the second devicemay be formed.

After the audio channel is established between the first device and thesecond device, the first device transmits an encrypted voice commandusing the public key of the audio manager, and the second deviceencrypts a voice command response message in response to the voicecommand received from the first device using the public key of the firstdevice and transmits the encrypted voice command response message(S14030).

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a method for forming an audio channelthrough a procedure of acquiring a trigger voice command according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 15, it is premised that the first device may be a userdevice and the second device and the third device may be an audiomanager device. In this case, the user device may be, for example, aheadset, a speaker, a handsfree, a smart phone, or the like.

When a user device uses a voice recognition service through severalaudio managers, a method for dividing and calling each voice recognitionservice is proposed.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in forming the audiochannel with the audio manager, the user device may acquire a triggervoice command that a user registers in advance in the audio manager andcall a voice recognition service to be used.

In detail, the user performs a trigger voice command registrationprocedure on the second device and the third device (S15010). The usermay register a first trigger voice command (for example, A) in thesecond device and register a second trigger voice command (for example,B) in the third device. The second device or the third device waits fora subsequent voice command when the trigger voice command registered ineach device is received.

The first device performs a procedure of acquiring a trigger voicecommand with the second device (S15020). Prior to performing theprocedure of acquiring a voice command, a procedure of forming a BLEconnection between the first device and the second device may beperformed. In step S15020, the first device receives the first triggervoice command from the second device.

Thereafter, the first device receives the first trigger voice commandfrom the user (S15030), and transmits the start recording message to thesecond device (S15040). For example, when the user speaks “A” around thefirst device, the first device may recognize the first trigger voicecommand and call the second device. This causes the second device toenter a state capable of receiving the subsequent voice command. Thatis, the audio channel is formed between the first device and the seconddevice.

The first device receives the voice command from the user (S15050). Thefirst device transmits the received voice command to the second devicethrough the audio channel formed between the first device and the seconddevice.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, a user does not register,in a user device, the trigger voice command that causes a audio managerto individually enter a state capable of receiving an audio command, andmay directly speak the trigger voice command to the user device to callthe corresponding audio manager.

At this time, a procedure of the user device acquiring the trigger voicecommand from the audio manager will be described in detail withreference to the following drawings.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating the procedure of acquiring the triggervoice command according to the embodiment to which the presentdisclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 16, it is assumed that the first device may be a userdevice and the second device may be an audio manager device.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the audio managermay transmit information on the trigger voice command to the user deviceusing an advertising extension bearer, and transmit the information onthe trigger voice command to the user device using a GATT bearer.

In addition, the audio manager may select a bearer for the procedure ofacquiring a trigger voice in the advertisement extension or the GATT inconsideration of the interference environment or the implementationenvironment.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 16(a), the second device selects thebearer for transmitting the trigger voice command to the first device(S16010). If the advertisement extension is selected, the second devicetransmits the trigger voice command through the advertisement extension(S16020).

Specifically, referring to FIG. 16(b), the second device selects thebearer for transmitting the trigger voice command to the first device(S16030). If the GATT scheme is selected, the second device transmitsthe advertising message to the first device (S16040).

The first device transmits a GATT read request message requesting atrigger voice command to the second device (S16050). The second devicetransmits, to the first device, a GATT read response message includinginformation on the trigger voice command in response to the GATT readrequest message (S16060).

The use of the advertisement extension can improve performance inrelation to a collision between messages. In other words, there is anadvantage in that a relatively easy collision avoidance design ispossible. On the other hand, there may be a disadvantage in that thetransmission and reception delay may be increased. In the situationwhere there is a lot of interference, it is more efficient to reduce acollision, so the use of the advertisement extension can efficientlyacquire the trigger voice command.

On the other hand, in the situation where there is relatively littleinterference, it may be more efficient to use the GATT scheme instead ofusing the advertisement extension. Therefore, as in the above-describedembodiment, when the bearer selection steps S16010 and S16030 are addedand operated, the audio manager can more efficiently perform the triggervoice command procedure with the user device.

Hereinafter, a method of effectively processing audio commands receivedfrom a plurality of user devices will be described.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 17, a first device, a second device, and a thirddevice may be a user device, and a fourth device may be an audio managerdevice.

Due to the time required to manage an audio channel and process an audiocommand (for example, processing an audio command performed between anaudio manager and an audio engine), the number of user devices that theaudio manager can simultaneously process is limited. As a result, whenthe user devices exceeding the limited number of user devices that canbe processed are connected, all the user devices may not be able toprovide services. What is needed is a method for allocating a resourceof an audio manager to user devices.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, theaudio manager can prevent the situation where the service cannot beprovided by notifying the user devices of the maximum number of userdevices that the audio manager can manage. At this time, the audiomanager may set a maximum service user parameter and transmit theparameter to the user device.

In detail, the fourth device transmits a first advertising message toperipheral devices (S17010). In this case, the first advertising messagemay include the maximum service user parameter indicating the maximumnumber of manageable user devices and/or an available service userparameter indicating the number of currently available user devices.

The first device transmits a first start recording message to the fourthdevice (S17020). The fourth device may enter a state capable ofreceiving an audio command by transmitting the start recording message.

The fourth device transmits a first start recording response message tothe first device in response to the first start recording message(S17030). In step S17020, when the maximum service user parameter valueincluded is 1 and the available service user parameter value is 1, thefirst start recording response message may include an intention toaccept that the service is available.

Thereafter, the audio channel may be formed between the first device andthe fourth device, and the first device may transmit the audio commandto the fourth device through the formed audio channel.

The fourth device transmits a second advertising message to peripheraldevices (S17040). In this case, since the second advertising message mayinclude the maximum service user parameter and/or the available serviceuser parameter and the audio channel with the first device is currentlyformed, the maximum service user parameter value may indicate 1 and theavailable service user parameter value may indicate 0.

In this case, the user device receiving the second advertising messagemay recognize that the available service user parameter value is 0 andmay hold the start recording.

If the start recording request is received even if the user of theavailable service is 0, the audio manager may transmit a responsemessage to the start recording to notify that the current processing isnot possible.

That is, the second device and the third device transmit the secondstart recording message and the third start recording message to thefourth device, respectively, to form an audio channel (S17050 andS17060). The fourth device transmits the second start recording responsemessage and the third start recording response message to the seconddevice and the third device in response to the second start recordingmessage and the third start recording message, respectively (S17070 andS17080). Since the fourth device currently does not have a user deviceavailable, the second start recording response message and the thirdstart recording response message may include a rejection intentionindicating that the service cannot be used.

In addition, the second start recording response message and the thirdstart recording response message may include a wait time field. If theresponse message including the wait time field is received, the seconddevice or the third device may transmit a message requesting the startrecording again after the corresponding time elapses.

In one embodiment, when the maximum number of service users of the audiomanager is 1, the user device may check a start recording message ofanother user device and hold its own start recording message.

In addition, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the audiomanager may manage audio commands received from a plurality of users byclassifying states. In detail, the audio manager may manage the state ofthe audio manager in a collecting period for receiving a request of avoice recognition service of a user device and a service period fortransmitting and receiving a voice recognition command (that is, anaudio command). This will be described with reference to the followingdrawings.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 18, a first device, a second device, and a thirddevice may be a user device, and a fourth device may be an audio managerdevice. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the fourth devicehas a maximum of three manageable user devices.

First, the fourth device transmits a first advertising message toperipheral devices (S18010). In this case, the first advertising messagemay include a maximum service user parameter and/or an available serviceuser parameter. The maximum service user parameter and the availableservice user parameter may indicate three.

The fourth device may receive start recording messages from the firstdevice, the second device, and the third device during a collectingperiod (or in a collecting period state) and transmit a start recordingresponse message including an accept or reject intention in response toa start recording message in consideration of the maximum number ofservice users and the number of available service users.

If there is no available service user, the fourth device transmits asecond advertising message indicating that the available service userparameter is 0 to peripheral devices (S18030). The second advertisingmessage may include a wait time field. If the advertising messageincluding the wait time field is received, other user devices maytransmit a message requesting the start recording after the timeelapses.

The fourth device forms an audio channel with the first device, thesecond device, and the third device during the service period (or in theservice period state) (S18040). In addition, the fourth device mayreceive an audio command through the formed audio channel to provide avoice recognition service.

FIGS. 19 and 20 are diagrams for describing a process of transmittingand receiving an audio command according to a state of an audio manageraccording to an embodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 19, it is assumed that there is one user devicerequesting reception of an audio command. When only one user device, nota plurality of user devices, requests formation of an audio channel, theaudio manager may provide a voice recognition service without dividing astate into a collecting period and a service period. In FIG. 19, thefirst device may be an audio manager and the second device may be a userdevice.

In detail, the second device may transmit a start recording message andthen transmit a voice command to the first device. The second device maytransmit a recording stop message to the first device. For example, therecording stop message may be transmitted by the second device if avoice command is not been received from the user for a certain time.

Thereafter, the first device transmits a response to the voice commandto the second device, and sends a termination response message to thesecond device. In the case of the voice command response (or voiceresponse), for example, a response to a time question may have a dataamount of 12 KBytes. It may take about 0.12 seconds based on theexisting GATT-based transmission rate.

Referring to FIG. 20, it is assumed that there are two user devicesrequesting reception of an audio command. When a request for a voicerecognition service is received from a plurality of user devices, theaudio manager may classify the state and process the requests. Indetail, the audio manager may classify the state into a collectingperiod and a service period.

In FIG. 20, the first device may be an audio manager, and the seconddevice, the third device, and the fourth device may be user devices.

As described above, the collecting period represents a period (or state)of collecting a start recording message. For the user devices requestedduring this period, the first device (that is, the audio manager) maydivide the service period and assign the divided service period to eachuser device. It is possible to exchange a voice command and a voicecommand response with each user device during the assigned period.

The audio manager may perform an advertisement for the audio channelformation during the collecting period. In this case, the advertisingmessage may include an available service user parameter. If theavailable service user value is 0, the advertisement may be performed byincluding a corresponding parameter indicating 0, or the advertisementmay not be performed because the voice recognition service is notavailable.

In addition, the service period represents a period during which a voicecommand and a voice command response are exchanged between the audiomanager and the user devices. The voice recognition service may beprovided to user devices that transmit the start recording messagethrough the collecting period during the service period.

First, when the first device receives the start recording message by thesecond device and the third device during the collecting period, thefirst device transmits a response message thereto. The first device mayprovide a voice recognition service by allocating service periods in theorder in which the start recording message is transmitted.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing audiocommands received from a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 21, a first device, a second device, and a thirddevice may be a user device, and a fourth device may be an audio managerdevice.

The fourth device transmits a first advertising message to peripheraldevices (S21010). In this case, the first advertising message mayinclude a maximum service user parameter and/or an available serviceuser parameter. It is assumed that the current maximum number of serviceusers is 3 which is the number of available service user.

The first device transmits a first start recording message to the fourthdevice (S21020). The fourth device may enter a state capable ofreceiving an audio command by transmitting the start recording message.The fourth device transmits a first start recording response message tothe first device in response to the first start recording message(S21030). In step S21020, when the maximum service user parameter valueincluded is 3 and the available service user parameter value is 3, thefirst start recording response message may include an intention toaccept that the service is available. In addition, the first startrecording response message may include information related to an audiochannel to be formed.

The fourth device transmits a second advertising message to peripheraldevices (S21040). In this case, the second advertising message mayinclude a maximum service user parameter and/or an available serviceuser parameter. The maximum service user parameter may indicate 3 andthe available service user parameter may indicate 2.

The second device transmits a second start recording message to thefourth device (S21050). The fourth device transmits a second startrecording response message to the second device in response to thesecond start recording message (S21060). In step S21040, since theavailable service user parameter included indicates 2, the second startrecording response message may include an acceptance intentionindicating that the service is available. In addition, the second startrecording response message may include information related to an audiochannel to be formed.

The fourth device transmits a third advertising message to peripheraldevices (S21070). In this case, the third advertising message mayinclude a maximum service user parameter and/or an available serviceuser parameter. The maximum service user parameter may indicate 3 andthe available service user parameter may indicate 1.

The third device transmits a third start recording message to the fourthdevice (S21080). The fourth device transmits a second start recordingresponse message to the second device in response to the second startrecording message (S21090). In step S21070, since the available serviceuser parameter included indicates 1, the third start recording responsemessage may include an accept intention indicating that the service isavailable. In addition, the second start recording response message mayinclude information related to an audio channel to be formed.

Thereafter, the audio channel may be formed between the first device andthe fourth device, between the second device and the fourth device, andbetween the third device and the fourth device (S21100). The audiocommand may be transmitted and received through the formed audiochannel.

The fourth device transmits a fourth advertising message to peripheraldevices (S21110). The fourth advertising message may include informationindicating that there are no more available users.

In FIG. 21, steps S21010 to S21090 may indicate a collecting periodstate of a fourth device (that is, an audio manager), and step S21100may indicate a service period state of the fourth device.

In one embodiment, when the number of maximum service users is 3, theaudio manager may use three processors to process the user device foreach processor, and the audio channel may be formed to be managed bythree devices to process audio command.

When forming the audio channel between the audio manager and theplurality of user devices, it is difficult to form a plurality of audiochannels capable of simultaneously transmitting audio commands.Hereinafter, a method for allocating a time-divided audio channel toeach user device and transmitting and receiving an audio command in thecorresponding audio channel will be described.

FIGS. 22 and 23 are diagrams for describing a method for allocatingaudio channels for a plurality of user devices according to anembodiment to which the present disclosure is applied.

Referring to FIG. 22, it is assumed that a first device, a seconddevice, and a third device may be a user device, and a fourth device maybe an audio manager device.

The fourth device forms an audio channel with the first device and thesecond device that have requested the formation of the audio channel(S22010).

A voice command/response to be exchanged between the first device andthe audio manager and a voice command/response to be exchanged betweenthe second device and the audio manager require real-time property. Dueto buffer limitations and speed of service, a delay for a voice commandshould not occur in all devices.

Therefore, the audio manager can receive voice commands transmitted fromthe first device and the second device through the ICO channel byconsidering two channels included in one stream without classifying intotwo streams. A channel represents a container carrying data (forexample, left channel, right channel, and the like of a voice stream)that needs to be synchronized. In addition, a stream represents acontainer carrying continuous data as a higher concept including a setof ICO channels.

In this case, the fourth device may allocate an ICO channel interval (oraudio channel interval) for transmitting and receiving audio signals tothe first device and the second device, as shown in FIG. 23(c).

The ICO channel interval may include a first channel event allocated tothe first device and a second channel event allocated to the seconddevice. The first channel event and the second channel event may eachinclude a plurality of sub event intervals.

If it is not necessary to directly process a voice command of any oneuser device (for example, when there is plenty of space in the buffer orit is not sensitive to delay), the audio manager may consider audiosignals transmitted from each user device as an individual stream andprocess each audio signal.

Thereafter, the third device transmits a start recording message to thefourth device, and the fourth device transmits a start recordingresponse message to the third device in response thereto (S22020).

When the number of user devices is changed to three, the fourth deviceperforms an audio channel update procedure with the first device and thesecond device (S22030), and the fourth device forms the audio channelwith the first device, the second device, and the third device (S22010).That is, the fourth device newly allocates and shares an audio channelto be used with all user devices.

In this case, the fourth device may allocate an ICO channel interval (oraudio channel interval) for transmitting and receiving audio signals tothe first device, the second device, and the third device as shown inFIG. 23(b).

The ICO channel interval may include a first channel event allocated tothe first device, a second channel event allocated to the second device,and a third channel event allocated to the third device.

FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of an internal blockdiagram of a user device and an audio manager device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 24, a user device may include a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an AI profile, a BLE S/W stack, and a MAC/PHY.

The audio manager may be implemented to include the DSP, the AI profile,the BLE S/W stack, the MAC/PHY, and an AI function. The AI function cancommunicate with the audio engine in a wired or wireless manner.

The DSP captures a user's voice, encodes the captured voice, andtransmits the encoded voice to the AI profile.

The AI profile may include audio manager management, voice linkmanagement, and user authentication management.

The audio manager operating profile may manage a protocol for changingthe state of the audio manager or understanding the state of the audiomanager, such as a start recording message that causes the audio managerto enter a state capable of receiving a user's voice command or arecording stop message for terminating it.

The voice link operating profile may manage a BLE link generated betweenthe audio manager and the user device. That is, a protocol forgenerating the BLE link or the audio link and transmitting data receivedfrom the DSP to the audio manager can be managed.

The user authentication operating profile may manage a protocol forstoring user information in a user device by recognizing orauthenticating a user, and registering the corresponding informationbetween the audio manager and the user device.

The AI profile of the audio manager may further include multiple accessmanagement on profiles included in the AI profile of the user device.The multiple access operating profile represents a protocol for managingmultiple user devices when the multiple user devices access the audiomanager.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating a method for acquiring serviceauthority between an audio manager and an AI authority manager dependingon a user's location according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Referring to FIG. 25, a first device may be a user device, a seconddevice may be an AI authority manager, a third device may be an audiomanager, and a fourth device may be an audio processing engine (or anaudio processing server).

The third device and the fourth device perform a location registrationprocedure (S25010). The third device (that is, the audio manager) maystore location information of a location (for example, an airport, amart, a department store, and the like) where the third device isinstalled at the time of installation. A policy related to what servicecan be performed depending on the location information of the locationwhere the audio manager is installed may be managed by the fourth device(that is, an audio processing engine).

The second device and the third device perform a location informationexchange procedure (S25020). That is, in the present embodiment, the AIauthority manager may provide location information indicating where theuser is to the audio manager.

The first device transmits a first start recording message to the seconddevice (S25030). The first device transmits a voice command to thesecond device through the audio channel formed between the first deviceand the second device (S25040).

The second device transmits to the fourth device a first service requestmessage requesting an interpretation of the received voice command or aservice related thereto, and receives a first service response messagefrom the fourth device in response thereto (S25050 and S25060). Thefourth device may check the user information and the locationinformation with respect to the service request of the second deviceaccording to the service policy, and determine whether the correspondingservice can be provided at the location to which the user belongs. Thefirst service response message may include information on whether thecorresponding service can be provided at the location to which the userbelongs.

The first device transmits a second start recording message to the thirddevice (S25070). The first device transmits a voice command to the thirddevice through the audio channel formed between the first device and thesecond device (S25080).

The third device transmits to the fourth device a second service requestmessage requesting an interpretation of the received voice command or aservice related thereto, and receives a second service response messagefrom the fourth device in response thereto (S25090 and S25100).

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible toprovide differentiated services depending on the user's position orlocation.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for exchanginglocation information between an authority manager and an audio manageraccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 26, a first device may be an AI authority manager anda second device may be an audio manager.

The first device performs a user authentication (UA) registrationsession for exchange of location information (S27010). In step S27010,the first device and the second device may perform mutualauthentication.

The first device and the second device perform a UA secure session(S27020). As a result, encrypted data may be exchanged between the firstdevice and the second device.

The first device transmits a set distance bonding message (or requestmessage) for measuring the distance between the first device and thesecond device to the second device (S26040). The second device transmitsa distance check message (or response message) (S26050). In steps S26040and S26050, the first device and the second device may exchangeparameters for measuring the distance.

In other words, the set distance bonding message and/or the distancecheck message may include a parameter for measuring the distance, andthe parameter for measuring the distance (that is, for example, receivedsignal strength indication), window setting and the like.

In addition, the set distance bonding message and/or the distance checkmessage may be exchanged in the form of an advertisement packet or maybe exchanged in a GATT manner on a connection basis.

The second device may transmit location information to the first device(S26050).

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of a usage environmentaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

First, a first user device 2760 may acquire a trigger voice command ofperipheral audio managers (that is, a first audio manager 2730 and asecond audio manager 2740). As described above with reference to FIGS.15 and 16, a user uses (or calls) a service using a trigger voicecommand of the second audio manager 27040 without separately registeringa trigger voice command of the second audio manager 27040 in the firstuser device 227060.

The user may have a first audio manager 2730 on his/her own phone. Thefirst audio manager 2730 may recognize that the current user's locationis the first spot 27010 from the second audio manager 27040 serving asan AI authority manager, and provide a service available only in thefirst spot 27010 to a user.

When the user moves the location to the second spot 2720, the first userdevice 27060 may understand the audio manager of the second spot 27020.

The first user device 27060 and the second user device 27080 may acquirea trigger voice command by the method described above with reference toFIGS. 15 and 16, and simultaneously transmit the voice command to thethird audio manager 27050 by the method described with reference toFIGS. 17 to 23.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for processinga voice command according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 28, the first device (that is, audio manager)transmits a first advertising message to peripheral devices (S28010).

In addition, as described above with reference to FIGS. 17 to 23, thefirst advertising message may include at least one of a maximum serviceuser parameter indicating the maximum number of manageable maximum userdevices or an available service user parameter indicating the number ofcurrently available user devices.

The first device receives a first request message for requestingestablishment of an audio channel for transmitting and receiving a voicecommand from a second device (that is, a user device) (S28020).

Here, the first request message may be referred to as a start recordingmessage.

As described above with reference to FIG. 14, the first advertisingmessage may include a public key of the first device, and the firstrequest message may include a public key of the second device. In thiscase, the audio command received through the audio channel may beencrypted using the public key of the first device.

In addition, as described above with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16, thefirst device may transmit a trigger command (or a trigger voice command)registered in the first device to the second device. Here, the triggercommand indicates a voice command which causes the first device to entera state capable of receiving a voice command. In this case, the firstrequest message may include the trigger command or information generatedbased on the trigger command.

In addition, the first device may select a bearer for transmitting atrigger command from advertising extension, advertising, or GATT. Thefirst device may transmit the trigger command to the second device usingthe selected bearer.

The first device establishes an audio channel with the second device(S28030).

The first device receives a voice command instructing performance of aparticular service from the second device through the audio channel(S28030).

In addition, as described above with reference to FIGS. 17 to 23, thefirst device may receive a second request message from a third devicerequesting the establishment of the audio channel for transmitting andreceiving a voice command. The first response message including anaccept or reject intention determined based on the values of the maximumservice user parameter or the available service user parameter may betransmitted to the third device in response to the second requestmessage.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 18 to 22, the audio managermay manage audio commands received from a plurality of users by dividingstates. In detail, the audio manager may manage the state of the audiomanager in a collecting period for receiving a request of a voicerecognition service of a user device and a service period fortransmitting and receiving a voice recognition command (that is, anaudio command).

In this case, the first request message and the second request messageare received during a collecting period in which a request of a voicerecognition service of a plurality of user devices is received, and avoice command instructing performance of a particular service may bereceived during a service period that a voice command is transmitted andreceived.

In addition, as described above, the first device may divide a serviceperiod with respect to user devices requested during the collection andallocate the divided service period to each user device. That is, theservice period may be divided and allocated to the second device and thethird device of the device.

In addition, as described above with reference to FIG. 23, the firstdevice may allocate a channel interval to the plurality of user devices.For example, the channel interval of the audio channel may include afirst channel event allocated to the second device and a second channelevent allocated to the third device.

In addition, as described above, the audio channel may be an isochronouschannel.

In addition, as described above with reference to FIGS. 25 to 27, theservice authority may be controlled depending on the user's location.That is, the first device may exchange location information with thesecond device and establish the audio channel with the second devicebased on the available service policy determined depending on thelocation of the second device.

The location information may include a received signal strengthindication (RSSI) or a window setting parameter.

In the embodiments described hereinabove, components and features of thepresent disclosure were combined with each other in a predeterminedform. It is to be considered that the respective components or featuresare selective unless separately explicitly mentioned. The respectivecomponents or features may be implemented in a form in which they arenot combined with other components or features. In addition, somecomponents and/or features may be combined with each other to configurethe embodiment of the present disclosure. A sequence of operationsdescribed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be changed.Some components or features of any embodiment may be included in anotherembodiment or be replaced by corresponding components or features ofanother embodiment. It is obvious that claims that do not have anexplicitly referred relationship in the claims may be combined with eachother to configure an embodiment or be included in new claims byamendment after application.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by variousmeans, for example, hardware, firmware, software, or a combinationthereof, and the like. In the case in which an embodiment of the presentdisclosure is implemented by the hardware, it may be implemented by oneor more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signalprocessors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs),programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, orthe like.

In the case in which one embodiment of the present disclosure isimplemented by the firmware or the software, it may be implemented in aform of a module, a procedure, a function, or the like, performing thefunctions or the operations described above. A software code may bestored in a memory and be driven by a processor. The memory unit may bepositioned inside or outside the processor and transmit and receive datato and from the processor by various well-known means.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the present disclosuremay be embodied in another specific form without departing from theessential feature of the present disclosure. Therefore, theabove-mentioned detailed description is to be interpreted as beingillustrative rather than being restrictive in all aspects. The scope ofthe present disclosure is to be determined by reasonable interpretationof the claims, and all modifications within an equivalent range of thepresent disclosure fall in the scope of the present disclosure. In thepresent specification, both the object disclosure and the methoddisclosure are described, and the description of both disclosures may becomplementarily applied as necessary.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure aredisclosed for the purpose of illustration, and those skilled in the artcan alternate, modify, replace, add or the lie various other embodimentswithin the spirit and technical scope of the present disclosuredisclosed in the appended claims below.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for processing a voice commandreceived from at least one device using a Bluetooth low energytechnology, the method performed by a first device comprising:transmitting a first advertising message including a maximum serviceuser parameter indicating the maximum number of manageable user devicesor an available service user parameter indicating the number ofcurrently available user devices to a peripheral device; receiving afirst request message requesting establishment of an audio channel fortransmitting and receiving the voice command from a second device;establishing the audio channel with the second device; receiving a voicecommand instructing performance of a particular service from the seconddevice through the audio channel; receiving a second request messagerequesting establishment of an audio channel for transmitting andreceiving the voice command from a third device; and transmitting to thethird device a first response message including an accept or rejectintention determined based on values of the maximum service userparameter or the available service user parameter to the third device inresponse to the second request message.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the first advertising message includes a public key of the firstdevice, the first request message includes a public key of the seconddevice, and an audio command received through the audio channel isencrypted using the public key of the first device.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: transmitting a trigger command registeredin the first device to the second device, wherein the trigger commandindicates a voice command which causes the first device to enter a statecapable of receiving a voice command.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinthe first request message includes the trigger command or informationgenerated based on the trigger command.
 5. The method of claim 3,wherein the transmitting of the trigger command includes selecting abearer for transmitting the trigger command from advertising extension,advertising, or GATT, and the trigger command is transmitted to thesecond device using the selected bearer.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the first request message and the second request message arereceived during a collecting period for receiving a request of a voicerecognition service of a plurality of users, and the voice commandinstructing performance of the particular service is received during aservice period for transmitting and receiving a voice command.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the service period is divided and allocatedto the second device and the third device.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the establishing of the audio channel includes establishing theaudio channel with the third device, and a channel interval of the audiochannel includes a first channel event allocated to the second deviceand a second channel event allocated to the third device.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the audio channel is an isochronous channel.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: exchanging location informationwith the second device, wherein in the establishing of the audiochannel, an audio channel is established with the second device based onan available service policy determined depending on the location of thesecond device.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the locationinformation includes a received signal strength indication (RSSI) or awindow setting parameter.
 12. A first device for processing a voicecommand received from at least one device using a Bluetooth low energytechnology, comprising: a communicator configured to communicate with anexternal device with a wired or wireless manner; and a processorconfigured to be functionally connected to the communicator, wherein theprocessor transmits a first advertising message including a maximumservice user parameter indicating the maximum number of manageable userdevices or an available service user parameter indicating the number ofcurrently available user devices to a peripheral device; receives afirst request message requesting establishment of an audio channel fortransmitting and receiving the voice command from a second device;establishes the audio channel with the second device; receives a voicecommand instructing performance of a particular service from the seconddevice through the audio channel; receives a second request messagerequesting establishment of an audio channel for transmitting andreceiving the voice command from a third device; and transmits to thethird device a first response message including an accept or rejectintention determined based on values of the maximum service userparameter or the available service user parameter to the third device inresponse to the second request message.